The View from Bolton Street

“The door was locked for fear….”

You may not be aware that Holy Week, historically, is the most dangerous season for the jewish people.  With millions of people around the world reading about the death of their savior, it is tempting to cast blame on someone, anyone, other than ourselves.  

Due in large part to the translation of the Gospel of John this has almost always been directed at the Jewish people.  This was true up until the Shoah (the holocaust) and in some parts of the world is still true.  We see reflections of this today in the Holy Land - as this year with the overlap of Lent, Passover and Ramadan there has been markedly more violence directed at Jews in the palestine. 

This year the Episcopal Church has approved a new translation of the Passion of John that seeks to restore the original understanding of John’s Gospel, largely replacing the translation for Jews with Judeans.  You can read more about these changes here - but a brief summary is that the distinction in the Gospel is not a religious one, but a geographic one.  After all, both the disciples and the hearers of John’s Gospel are jewish.  They do not ‘fear the Jews’; they fear the Judeans, because they are from Galilee - a poorer region of the Palestine - and are being persecuted by the wealthier and more connected Judeans.  

There are other instances where the translation is shifted to the ‘Jewish authorities’ because it is the Jewish leaders with whom Judas negotiates. This summer, the Episcopal Church will consider among other resolutions, one focused on Anti-semitism. The resolution acknowledges both our church’s past anti-semitism and commits the Church to more thoughtful engagement with our Jewish siblings.  

Why? You might ask. We aren’t anti-Semitic! We love our Jewish neighbors.  

Because while the issue of Anti-Semitism may seem far off, the compulsion to blame our own failings, shortcomings or distance from God on someone else is not.  Bigotry, homophobia, racism, often originate from a place of fear.  Fear that we are too far away from God. From success. From hope.  So we need someone else to be culpable to make us feel better. 

This Holy Week I encourage you to consider where your anger and frustration goes when you feel shame. Who shoulders that blame?  Trump? Biden? The Police? The City Council? Your Rector? Your family?  

Feeling lost and far away is a lonely and scary place to be.  And if you have gotten this far in this reflection, you would be tempted to think that the alternative to blaming someone else is to blame yourself.  “I MESSED UP.”  

But that is not it at all.  

The message of the passion and the Gospel is that no matter where we are Jesus is there too.  Whether we are locked in the upper room, asleep in the garden, alone and scared by the fire, or at the foot of the cross, Jesus is there waiting expectantly for us.  

Jesus is not interested in judgement.  His last words on the cross are not “you guys are gonna get it!” But rather “forgive them, for they know not what they do.” 

You are already forgiven.  We are already forgiven.  

Whatever you think is keeping you from a deeper relationship with God is… not.   Jesus is waiting for you - to wash your feet, to meet you at the cross, to show you the empty tomb, to meet you on the way to Emmaus and to break bread with you.  

So what are you waiting for?